Burberry: A Brand New Logo for the Iconic Brand

Leah Groth

Creative Director Riccardo Tisci is shaking things up at the Scottish fashion house, with a fresh new logo and font.

Burberry’s Equestrian Knight logo, first developed in 1901, is almost as iconic as their trademark plaid. The British brand has made slight tweaks to it throughout the years, but up until this summer, it has remained relatively recognizable. With new creative director Riccardo Tisci at the helm, the brand recently revealed a new house logo — and it looks nothing like the Burberry logo of decades past.

Tisci, formerly the creative chief at Givenchy, took Burberry’s helm from Christopher Bailey earlier this year, who had led the brand for nearly two decades. One of his first moves was hiring graphic designer Peter Saville to overhaul and freshen up the traditional logo. Saville replaced the softer, more elegant, font reading “Burberry London” in all caps with a bolder, more modern style. He also nixed the knight altogether and added the word “London” (no comma) for a truly attention-grabbing look.

The brand also revealed an archive inspired monogram print of interlocking Bs and Ts, representing the brand’s founder, Thomas Burberry. The painfully chic orange, white and beige design is so utterly catchy, that it is only a matter of time before the print is all over the runway and splashed on bikinis, scarves, handbags and jacket linings.

Saville’s work may look familiar; he is the man responsible for iconic album covers for Joy Division, and other logo revamps such as Calvin Klein and Paco Rabanne. Tisci is clearly a huge fan of his, posting several emails between the two discussing the rebrand on Burberry’s Instagram page. “Peter is one of our generation’s greatest design geniuses. I’m so happy to have collaborated together to reimagine the new visual language for the house,” he wrote about their collaboration.

Burberry isn’t the first fashion brand to revamp their logo in a major way. In 2012, under the direction of Hedi Slimane, Yves Saint Laurentrebranded their ready-to-wear line as Saint Laurent Paris. Slimane viewed the move as a “retro throwback,” tapping into Saint Laurent’s game-changing 1966 collection, Saint Laurent Rive Gauche.

“It made sense today to transpose these principles and recover the original name and typeface,” Slimane explained in an interview about the move. While some fashion insiders weren’t too thrilled about the change, it ultimately reaped major rewards for the company, which has reportedly boasted double-digit year-to-year growth since 2012.

It’s likely the same will happen for Burberry, as the freshened up logo and monogram print is sure to appeal to social media savvy millennials, who heavily influence retail sales.

Now that September’s London Fashion Week has concluded, and we have a better idea of which direction Ricardo Tisci has decided to take the fashion house, it is clear to see that Burberry is embracing these changes, creating a buzz around the new collection and what it has to offer.